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"instead" and "rather than"

Suggested Difficulty (Elementary etc): ____
Video or Audio: ____
Lesson Idea: Hi @Constance_Fang and Team,

Hi,

I am not aware of a lesson which directly teases out the “instead” puzzle (or sometimes "rather than.) I have found it a mental tongue twister to be able to fluidly communicate concepts of “instead.” It usually involves flipping objects and subjects from their positions in English and plugging in some combo of替代 代替 而是 or 而不是, but other times the structure is more familiar. All of these phrases have different senses. Sometimes they don’t even mean “instead” but rather “substitute.” So, it is very confusing, yet necessary. If you know of a lesson which already exists for this please point it out, if not, maybe this would be a good idea? I think someone has already proposed it.

Here are some tricky examples, the first is from above

Sometimes they don’t even mean “instead” but rather “substitute.” (how do you communicate that “but rather” in Chinese when in English the second object is suspended on the end of the sentence.)

you should go to Japan in stead

you should go to Japan instead of Singapore

In place of a language partner, he instead used Chinesepod (or he instead got a girlfriend.)

He likes eating fruit. I like eating vegetables instead.

Whatever else you can think of too

you should
Thanks,

Forrest